Clearing gets off to a smooth start

Fast and furious trading on the Clearing "stock exchange" for university admissions was underway today as 250,000 students received their A-level results.

The universities admissions service, Ucas, said the number of candidates who have had places confirmed on the basis of their A-level results was up this year, and so was the number eligible to enter the Clearing process - indicating quicker decision-making by university admissions tutors.

For students still chasing a college place today the message is that there are still plenty of vacancies on more than 43,000 courses up and down the country.

A Ucas spokesman said that this morning 267,442 places had been confirmed by universities and colleges, compared with 249,400 last year. The number of candidates eligible for Clearing because they have not got a place rose this year to 89,833 from 84,980 on A-level results day last year. Numbers in Clearing will rise over the coming days as more people who have not achieved the grades they wanted - or who have done better than expected and want to "trade up" - enter the process.

This may reflect the good crop of A-level results, meaning that popular courses are filling up with candidates with top grades, leaving tutors with a clear picture and reducing the need for discussion with applicants.

However, the advice for students who have missed their offers by a grade or two is to approach your first choice and see if there is a vacancy - many tutors would rather have someone committed to the course rather than pick up someone new with slightly better grades via Clearing.

Within the first hour of going live, more than 25,000 students logged on to the "ucastrack" service to view the status of their application. Ucas expects this figure to rise rapidly throughout the day as students receive their results.

Ucas chief executive, Anthony McClaran, said: "Students are able to access all the information they need to make the most informed decisions regarding their future. The whole process has been fantastically speeded up through the use of a range of electronic services."